Today's Opinions

During the People’s Faire this year many people wrote letters at the Amnesty International table in support of the Palestinian writer Ahmad Qatamesh. He was arrested by Israel almost 17 months ago and still has not been charged with a crime. No one has accused him of acts of violence, and many believe he was arrested for daring to write in support of a policy that would create one country where both Jews and Arabs would live together with equal rights. For some Israeli Jews this is a dangerous idea and must be suppressed.

This year’s Millfest can be summed up as great people, great weather and a great time. On behalf of everyone who participates in the millfest, I would like to thank our millfest sponsors for their invaluable assistance in helping put this event on.

While East Las Vegas moved forward as New Mexico’s newest and most vibrant American city in the 1880’s, the west side did not immediately take a back seat. The Romero brothers and many of the early non-Hispanic merchants continued their business establishments in what became La Plaza Vieja (Old Town).

United States involvement in Afghanistan isn’t going as well as anyone would like — and there are no easy solutions.

The U.S. is up to about 100,000 troops fighting in this, the longest war in American history. Here are the costs for the U.S. so far in this 11-year conflict: In June, the tally hit the 2,000 mark for the number of service men and women killed, while the number of Americans injured in combat is approaching 7,000. And according to the National Priorities Project (costofwar.com), the U.S. has spent nearly $600 billion on this war.

“Why, when I was your age . . . “ It’s impossible to utter those six words, in that sequence, without having someone come up with, “Yes, we already know: You had to walk to school five miles, uphill both ways, in deep snow.”

So I won’t be mentioning the daily trudges through snow, in freezing weather that lasted from December to December. Nor will I write about the distance of our treks.